With Mr. Armstrong having been dead now for twenty eight years, and the Church strewn to the four winds, the faithful remnant is asking this very important question. Just what is the commission of such a scattered Church? Most are aware that there are a number of groups still preaching some form of the Gospel. There are other groups that are just hanging on to any thread of the past and feeding themselves. The vast majority, however, are those countless individuals who are trying to obey God in any way they can, since they have not found any group that has their best Spiritual interest at heart. Others have been burned so bad by derelict ministers, that they are just not doing anything with their spiritual calling.

Mr. Armstrong often said that we are to look to the fruits of a work to determine its validity. Do we see any group out there that has become internationally renowned so as to be a credible force to publish the good news of God’s coming Kingdom? There is only one answer, and that is no. All the Gospel preaching groups put together would not be able to find the resources nor the opportunities that Herbert Armstrong had. Not one of the preachers is a credible teacher that the world would accept, so what is wrong with this picture?

It would be totally reasonable and rational to assume that if God wanted to have the Gospel continue to be published to the world, He would have strengthened the Church, and not have allowed it to scatter and shatter. But it has scattered and shattered, so is that not in itself an indicator that God has instituted a different mission for the remnant?

Did Mr. Herbert Armstrong himself leave a last will and testament for the Church to follow? If so, what did he tell us to be doing? I am here to tell you that Mr. Armstrong did leave very concise instructions as to the Gospel and to the work for today. So why is it that we never knew about all this? Quite simply this: Mr. Armstrong called a very special conference for all the leading men in March of 1981. The results of that conference were published for all the Church in a special edition of the Worldwide News on March 6, 1981, but the very leaders who were at that conference, never followed through with teaching the brethren this new direction. In fact I have talked to many brethren who never even got that special edition of the WN.

So, Mr. Armstrong called a special conference in 1981 to reveal the Present Commission of the Church, and just as important, he offered precise and specific details about the gospel in the event of his death. But you, the reader, never heard any of this because it was hidden from you, until now.

To support his message, Mr. Armstrong even had two huge charts drawn up, and they too are published in this special edition of the WN. These charts themselves made it abundantly clear, that if Mr. Armstrong were missing from the chart, there would be no link between the gospel and the church. That link was only drawn to Mr. Armstrong, proving visually that publishing the gospel was his job, as supported by the church. So what about the job of the Church then if Mr. Armstrong was removed?

This one special edition of the Worldwide News makes it Clear that the primary commission of the Church is for the individual to be actively building righteous character, so as to be better prepared to enter the family of God. Now this leads us to a very important detail about the gospel itself. Why did it need to be published anyway?

Again, Mr. Armstrong gives us the simple answer in another special edition of the Worldwide News, that of June 24, 1985, just seven months before his death. He states clearly that the whole purpose of publishing the gospel was to call a chosen few people from ways of the world, and start them on the road to the ways of God.

Okay, so through the many years of Herbert Armstrong’s life, many thousands of people were called out of the world and into God’s ways. Where are all those people today? Some have died, but what about the countless number that are out there alone today? Were they just a lot of “tares” as some would have us believe, or is it just possible that most of them were on the road to conversion, but then fell away or were put out of the Church by the actions or inactions of a derelict Ministry?

If one considers the abundant resources that God had committed to calling all these individuals, we cannot possibly believe that God now has no interest in their welfare!

So here is a question I pose to those who are out there trying to call more individuals though their own little tiny work of preaching the gospel; What shepherd beats and scatters the sheep he had been given charge of, and then goes right out and gathers a brand new flock? Will the Master be upset when He comes to the field to seek the sheep He knew by name, only to find that they had been scattered and sickened by a derelict group of shepherds?

This website is dedicated to those very sheep that the Master knows by name, those who may or may not be counted among the corporate groups of today. Are you one of them? Does the Master know your name? If you think He knows your name, then rest assured that this author wants to do all he can to honor that connection by providing the reader with unique insights to the past and clarity of purpose for a bright future ahead.